Curious Menagarie
by Azura no Kaze
Summary: 'Whats life without whismy and magic'... When the land of stories falls under a dark curse, the feline and the wolf must race against time to stop it. But while the clock is ticking, can a word release the string of yarn that has been between them? 'Keep on marching'... Tick, tock...Tick, tock...
1. Chapter 1: Dreams and Songs

Prologue: Dreams & Songs

 _Luminous school disappears. Sticky resin drips from tree. Unbearable stench fills the air. Velvety tufts of fabric mixes with downy feathers of a Tum-tum tree…_

* * *

Kitty woke up with her back drenched in sweat. She forced herself into reality. To the world that mattered. She looped her delicate fingers around the branch she slept on and lowered herself down. The dream not only destroyed her love to nap, but also her love of chaos, if it didn't dampen it. She realized that a girl with aqua and violet rings was sitting on the other side of the room. Kitty took a moment to realize it was Maddiline Hatter, a fellow wonderlander. She looked paler than usual, and had her hands in her pinafore pocket, rocking herself from side to side, in an eerie manner. She she saw Kitty reaching up to her, she gripped her shoulders with the will of iron.

"Kitty… they've gone, stuck, in another world… of what, perhaps mirrors or riddles, or one that magic will surely unfurl,". Her voice was a bit wobbly at the end with fear, and as soon as she finished, she broke into a runny mess of tears that stained the exquisite gloves she was hiding herself behind. When Kitty leaned in to help her, she flinched.

"Don't trouble yourself with me," she whispered reassuringly, "Help the zoo find their way back for me… and you."

Suddenly, a harsh cry came out of the little girl, and when the feline broke out of her grip, Maddie held her hand to her chest and was breathing in hard, unsteady breaths. Her shining eyes dulled.

"No!" Kitty gasped.

The Hatters girl looked up at her with faint recognition.

"Only thing I can reassure of of is that this curse will end," she took a few last breaths,"When the school is whole again,". Then she was silent.

Kitty screamed. with her heart, with her wonder... her well of wonder that is infected by this plague that threatens to destroy all her people... her people. her voice started to wane slowly. The cat gulped down the air around her, and with strange ease, manage to leave her friend, after throwing a blaket around her, one drop splashing softly on the Hatters pale cheek.

* * *

"Dive into an abyss,

Search the night, for a single trace of light.

And unaware, I close my heart,

We'll reveal the truth at last, with a key to shake our reality.

With only a touch of fleeting words…"

Cerise held her scarlet hood more tightly than ever, her knuckles turning white. She continued singing her childhood song.

"But if there was only one thing I'd keep forever,

It would be that memory.

And the colour of the sky before me

I would give my pride and courage,

But I will never be discouraged.

Burn it all to the ground,

Tonight at last, set it free for the dream we unleash."

As if the petals become the wind,

I finally can fight along your side.

Even if I fall, till' my last breath,

Unto the end, I will forever shine"

Suddenly, the girl stopped. Ash grey fog was curling itself around the school. Something was telling her that it was no normal fog. Evil radiated out of it like rays. Suddenly she felt dizzy as if a part of the substance coiled around her mind. The next thing she knew, she saw endless black.

* * *

Kitty felt weak. Her wonder felt as low as her joy. How can she feel happy, when the Ever Afterlings were gone, and so was her soulmates. She felt as if a part of herself was ripped off. As she trailed around the school, shadows flickered in her back of her vision. Kitty looked up, realizing that a starless night waved back at her. Then she saw a silhouette slumped on the ground. Mustering enough wonder, she changed her clothes and her location. She was beside the girl in minutes, her pure white short-sleeved arm gently caressing her torso. Then she stood up, looking toward the forest that she would soon be, there, her violet scarf and dress fluttering in the breeze.


	2. Chapter 2: Cresent Moon

Cerise was dreaming. Reliving past experiences, aware that she was dreaming, but unable to wake regardless. A variety of scenes appeared then faded again. One eventually stuck, the outlines beginning to coalesce.

Needless to say, she recognized it straight away.

It was the time she'd met Ryu.

The girl was running around in a small, tight space she called the Teien, Garden in Shinrin. Her flowing chocolate hair covered very little of the white bang obsecuring some of her view, but she didn't care. She didn't try to cover her ears poking out of her wild hair or the fangs prodding out of her jaws. She was free, and that was all she needed.

A figure stepped into the sunlight, his navy cloak covering most of his identity. Ramona burst out of the house and studied the stranger with creepy tranquil, cocking her head. Cerise shook her head inwards as her sister paced around him. The last time a person came, Ramona tortured him as she lapped up his body with a snap of her jaws. The man was still wailing in her stomach as she skipped away, and when she vomited him out, a half eaten corpse was discoved. She soon uncoved that her sister had eaten many humans after that, and had a flair for haunting them.

That's if they ever returned home alive.

"Are you Mori Umare?" the stranger asked, his gruff voice filled with serene, even though Ramona was tryng to suck marrow out of his already ripped flesh and bone.

Cerise nodded her head cautionsly, eying his blade that was pricking her neck. One wrong move and she will be skewered.

A bitter tang wafted to Cerise's nose. Blood was already pooling around the man, and if he noiced it, her didn't show it.

 _Sooo hungry..._

Cerises' eyes widened in understanding as they flashed torpaz. She removed her neck away away from her attacker, and slyly, tripped him up. She lifted her hand to her mouth in mock surprize and saunted over to his heaving chest. She removed his clothing and layed a hand to his writhring body.

 _Sooo delicous.._

"Bye," she whisped to his ear.

With a diligent howl, she ripped his heart out.

It was sooo creamy, smooth, and dripping with scarlet liquid. She chewed on it and the empty ribs and organs that layed waste to the suffocating airs. When she finished, her eyes reverted to normal and Cerise gave a pained gasp at the havoc she recked at the old man. Her own breath reeked of musty meat and red. Cerise knew these outbreaks when the little wolf in her head devoured her, and the was only one way to punish him.

By forbidding herself for eating and ever revealing her identity.

And thats when the Attack came.

It was called by the survivors, the Forest-Born, Inkurudo Kogeki.


End file.
